59960 - English Language (Course and Laboratory) I (M-Z)

Learning outcomes

At the end of the course students should reach a minimum level of B1 (Council of Europe framework) for listening skills and reading skills, while the ideal level is B2. In particular, students should be able to follow a lesson in English, to listen and report on specific information, to read a complex text and make a fluent oral report on it.  

Course contents

The 30 hours course is organized into two modules: one module will be devoted to enhancing students' reading skills by exposing them to a wide range of text types, in particular, reviews for the general public. Topics covered will include the analysis of the argumentative structure, references, modals, linkers and conjunctions, evaluative lexis, synonymy and polysemy, morphology. Particular attention will be also paid to the use of a monolingual dictionary. The second module will be devoted to improving listening skills, in particular, BBC World news. Attention will be focussed on stress, intonation and phonetics, especially weak vowels.

On completion of these modules, students should be able to understand the key features of an oral text, such as a lecture or a news broadcast and make an oral presentation of its contents. They also should be capable to read and comprehend authentic texts of average difficulty

Readings/Bibliography

The texts to be analyzed during the course will be made available at ALMADL (campus.cib.unibo)

Autonomous study:     
C. Bevitori e M. Di Serio: ReViews: online Reading Skills for students of Political Science. Bologna: CLUEB 2003.

Recommended reading:

Moran Michael, Politics and Governance in the UK, 3rd edition,  Basingstoke: Palgrave MacMillan 2015

Lowe, Norman, Mastering Modern British History, Palgrave McMillan 5th edition, 2017

All books are available at the Biblioteca Ruffilli

 

Dictionaries (to choose from):
The Oxford Advanced Learner's Dictionary. Oxford: OUP
The Collins Cobuild English Language Dictionary. London:Collins

Teaching methods

The course consists of lectures (30 hours) and a language laboratory (40 hours)

Lectures are aimed at developing skills in order to comprehend and interpret written and oral texts of average difficulty. The course will be held in English ans is  is aimed at  B1 level students.

The language laboratory is aimed at improving fluency and accuracy in listening and speaking skills in order to allow students to reach a good command of linguistic and communicative competence. It will be conducted in relatively small groups.

Assessment methods

Assessment will be made through two written tests (mid-term test and  final exaam) and a final oral exam.

The mid-term test includes a cloze test and a reading test with  multiple choice and open questions. Questions will include text structure, function of references, conjunctions and linkers, modality, synonyms in context and the language of evaluation. The final exam is composed of two parts: listening comprehension and reading comprehension.

Spoken English will be assessed in an oral examination on selected parts of one of the two recommended texts in bibliography.

In order to pass the exam, students  are required to achieve at least level A2 in spoken English and B1 in listening and reading comprehension - idela level B2

Students that do not follow lessons can take the exam as follows:

written test– reading comprehension and listening comprehension (from BBC World News)

oral test  - an interview on selected parts as follows: (ca. 100 pages):

2 Chapters  from  TEXT A (Politics and Governance in the UK) AND  3  Chapters from TEXT  B (British Poltical History)

 

A) Moran, M. Politics and Governance in the UK , 3rd ed., Basingstoke: Palgrave MacMillan, 2015

Selection of Chapters (Choose 2 chapters)

• CH 3 The constitution and the British political culture

  CH 4 The core executive in the Westminster system

  CH 7 Parliament and the Westminster system

  CH 8 Devolved government in Northern Ireland

  CH 11 Europeanising British government

  CH 12 Parties and their organization

  CH 13 Parties and their ideologies

  CH 14 How citizens participate

  CH 15 How political communication happens

  CH 16 How elections are decided

  CH 17 How leaders are selected

B) Lowe, Norman, Mastering Modern British History, Palgrave McMillan 5th edition, 2017

3 chapters between chapter 19 and chapter 35

 

 

Self-Study:

Reading comprehension:

C. Bevitori e M. Di Serio: Re-views: on line reading skills for students of Political Science. Bologna: CLUEB 2003. Available on request ( Please contact the Professor directly)

Teaching tools

PC, DVD, videoprojector

Office hours

See the website of Cinzia Bevitori